[Michlib-l] Unattended Children Policy

[Marty Ferriby]

Hello Steve and all --

Attached is Hackley Library's Unattended Children Policy, FYI.  It's 
time for us to look at it again since it was last reviewed in 2007, 
but I don't anticipate major changes.  We may look at defining the 
age of an accompanying adult.

At the time this was first written, HPL was part of Muskegon Public 
Schools, and I learned then through school channels that in the State 
of Michigan children age 7 and up are presumed to be able walk 
unattended to a neighborhood elementary school.  As I remember it, 
that's one of the reasons that there are buses for kindergarteners, 
but not necessarily for elementary age students who live close to 
their school.  This legal concept may have changed.

We are a city library and have many young visitors who are unattended 
by adults ever.  For some kids, the library is a safe place when home 
and the streets are not, and some kids are locked out of their homes, 
so our emphasis is on their behavior.  The library may be the best 
and safest place some kids can come to on their own, they may have 
made a good choice to come here, but they have to behave appropriately.

We have visitors from a number of different school districts, which 
is why we don't necessarily get too excited about teens in the 
library during the school day.  Different high schools are closed for 
lots of different reasons and the teens could well be legitimatly off 
for the day for their district.  We leave 'em be unless their 
behavior causes us to intervene.  We definitely call the school and 
check out the situation for younger kids who visit the library 
without an adult during the school day; there can be a social work 
reason why they chose to come here instead of school or home.

Hope this is helpful.

Marty Ferriby, Director
Hackley Public Library
316 W. Webster Ave.
Muskegon, MI 49440
231-722-7276



We are exploring our existing policy concerning unattended children, 
and we want to get a feel for how other libraries handle this issue. 
Please let us know what your policies are regarding children coming 
into your library. We're concerned about age ranges and when you 
require adult supervision.

Thanks,

Steven F. Smith
Administrative Librarian
Dearborn Public Library
16301 Michigan Ave.
Dearborn, MI  48124
(313) 943-2812
ssmith at ci.dearborn.mi.us

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